CakeSpy's Recent Craftsy Posts

How to choose typefaces to complement your artwork. It's an art!

Awesome baking hacks. Bookmark this one!

A primer on the best types of paper for illustration. 

How to do a drawing a day. It's an awesome and inspiring project!

A scintillating guide to the different types of bread yeast.

Creative cross hatching to deepen your drawing practice.

2B or not 2B? A guide to working with pencil for creating art.

Related: An easy guide to getting started with pencil drawing. 

How to draw illustrated instruments, ideal even if you're tone deaf!

How to correct common pen and ink mistakes. 

DIY cream cheese. Could it get any better than this? 

A primer on focaccia bread sandwiches. Worthwile.

Yes! NYC-style Italian flag cookies!

Pretty in ink: a guide to pen and ink illustration.

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

These links are brought to you by the letter CHOCOLATE. 

Chocolate ganache petits fours. A winning recipe if I do say so myself. (CakeSpy for Craftsy)

Olive oil chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. Can I get a witness to this awesome? (Colavita)

Chocolate dipped Pop-Tarts. Happy time! (CakeSpy)

Why do we eat chocolate on Valentine's Day? (History.com)

Chocolate olive oil cupcakes. Yumz. (In Jennie's Kitchen)

Like Inception, but in chocolate: chocolate covered chocolate truffles. (Serious Eats)

Baking with chocolate, 101. (Colavita)

Ever heard of "Five Pound Fudge"? (Find out more)

DIY chocolate fountain. You're welcome. (Project Wedding)

Good question: how can I tell which filling is in which chocolate? (Russell Stover)

If you're feeling "alternative" this heart day, try some chocolate covered cheetos! (Serious Eats)

Book of the week: The True History of Chocolate. Botany. Archeology. History. There's more to chocolate than you might think! This book explores the real history of one of America's favorite sweets. 

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Olive oil chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. That's a mouthful to say, but an even more delicious mouthful to eat. 

Olive oil can be employed in this absolutely gorgeous egg-free (it won't kill you!) cookie dough for an intriguing flavor which becomes all the more seductive when coated in rich dark chocolate. 

Go ahead--you deserve it. So does your Valentine. 

Recipe here. 

Chocolate Ganache Petits Fours

Forget going to work today. Call in sick, and make these instead: chocolate ganache petits fours.

All of the awesomeness of ganache, delivered in adorable petit-four form--doesn't it just make your heart melt? If that doesn't, the taste will: rich, full-bodied, unforgivingly chocolate. 

Recipe here. 

Working With Chocolate in Baking

Do you get confused about baking chocolate versus bittersweet? Are you confused by the different types of chocolate and how to work with them? 

In this post for Colavita, I strive to give a basic primer on the different types of chocolate and working with them in baking. I hope you enjoy it!

Full post here. 

Chocolate Dipped Pop-Tarts

Never again do you have to decide between Pop-Tarts and candy bars for a snack. Chocolate-dipped Pop-Tarts are both. At once. And they will win the heart of any Valentine, guaranteed. 

So go ahead--throw out your chocolate torte recipe. Throw the box of chocolates right out the window. In fact, throw out everything you own, except for the following.

• Parchment paper
• A baking sheet
• Pop-tarts
• Chocolate
• Sprinkles
• A heart shaped cookie cutter

Because it's time to make the best thing ever: Chocolate Dipped Pop-Tarts. They have all the fun of a Pop-Tart but with the added awesomeness of chocolate. Take that, chocolate covered strawberries! 

These chocolate-dipped Pop-tarts are what love tastes like, and it is sweet. 

Chocolate Dipped Pop-Tarts

• 6 Pop-Tarts, flavor of your choice
• 6 ounces chocolate (milk, semisweet, or dark - but not baking chocolate)
• Chocolate sprinkles
• a small heart shaped cookie cutter

Procedure

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take the Pop-Tarts out of their packaging.
2. Melt the chocolate, either in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave in 30 second increments until it's melty. 
3. Position your melted chocolate near the parchment paper, and get to work.

4. I found that the best method was to hold a Pop-tart in my hand, and use a spoon or spatula to drip chocolate over half of it, rather than dipping the Pop-Tart in the bowl of melted chocolate--too much chance of dropping it!

5. Once coated, set the dipped Pop-tart on the parchment paper.
6. Grab the heart shaped cookie cutter and place it on the chocolate portion of the Pop-Tart, while the chocolate is still soft. Pour sprinkles in the cutter, then gently lift the cutter off, careful to not upset the sprinkles. You can shake off excess sprinkles later, but for now leave them there.

7. Let the decorated tarts set until the chocolate is firm, and then shake off any excess sprinkles. You are good to go, Romeo. 

What kind of Pop-Tarts would you dip in chocolate?

2/7: Happy National Ice Cream For Breakfast Day

Photo via Post Foods

Did you know that February 7th is National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day? I know, I know: best holiday ever. Finally, a reason for ice cream stores to open early! Because one of my true laments in life is that ice cream stores open too late. Surely I'm not the only one who craves ice cream at 9:00 in the morning, right? 

But I digress. To celebrate this wondrous day, I'd like to present an easy way to "breakfast" up your ice cream--by adding Grape Nuts.

Believe it or not, Grape Nuts ice cream not only exists, but can be quite common in parts of New England. Weird as it might sound, it works: the ice cream basically does to grape nuts what takes milk at least 40 minutes to do: it softens it, so that you can eat and enjoy the nutty, somewhat wholesome flavor without breaking your teeth. It works very nicely as an ice cream flavor.

If you're not in New England, however, you can do it the easy DIY way, by mixing Grape-Nuts into existing vanilla ice cream. Here's how.

Easy d.i.y. Grape-Nuts Ice Cream

Adapted from Post Foods

• 1/2 cup Grape-Nuts Cereal
• 1 pint (2 cups) vanilla ice cream, softened 
• Additional mix-ins of your choice: caramel, chocolate chips, etc.

Procedure

1. Mix the cereal and softened ice cream in freezer proof bowl until the cereal is equally dispersed; cover.
2. Freeze until firm.
3. Store leftovers in freezer.

What flavor will you have for breakfast on National Ice Cream for Breakfast day?

Baker's Dozen: A Batch of Sweet Links

For the love...of champagne flutes! Check out this sweet post by my friend. (Jameson Fink)

Can you refrigerate buttercream? Plus more buttercream FAQs. (CakeSpy for Craftsy)

Awesome cookie dough truffles made with olive oil. Really! (Colavita)

I can deal with "healthified" cinnamon rolls because it means you're still eating cinnamon rolls. (Crazy for Crust)

Eat on up: banana bread nutella bars. (Heather's French Press)

Because I already miss North Carolina: a roundup of all of the delicious things I ate in Asheville. (CakeSpy)

One of the most interesting obits: David Dalquist, who invented a baking pan we all know and love. (NY Times)

Good question: what is cocoa butter? (Baking Bites)

Impossibly cute: chocolate cherry blossom cookies. (Sally's Baking Addiction)

Think pavlova is great? Give double chocolate pavlova a try, yo. (Epicuricloud)

Don't have separation anxiety: check out creative cake separator ideas. (CakeSpy for Craftsy)

East 62nd Street Cake. It looks like it's stuffed with sunshine. (Shauna Sever)

How to draw instruments. A sweet (but not to eat, or even play) tutorial! (CakeSpy for Craftsy)

I love eating avocado creatively. This avocado breakfast bowl has me intrigued. (Sun Diego Eats)

Agar extender. (TIC Gums)

Book of the week: Cut Out and Keep: Around the USA in 50 Craft Projects. I've been a huge fan of the website Cut Out + Keep for years, and this innovative book features craft ideas from all around the USA. I think you'll enjoy the clever yet beautiful crafts from the book, ranging from hollywood-inspired lampshades to beautiful foliage-inspired napkins. 

Mini Peanut Butter Baked Alaskas

I will have you know, fine people, that I made mini peanut butter baked Alaskas for one of my favorite companies ever, Peanut Butter and Company. It was an honor!

Baked Alaska, to the uninitiated, is not only dessert, but SCIENCE. Cold ice cream sits atop a cake (or in my recipe, a cookie) base, and is coated all over with a meringue mixture. The meringue totally seals the ice cream in, and allows the whole thing to be popped in a very hot oven long enough to crisp the meringue, making for an improbable and impressive dessert that is hot and cold all at once.

And this version is even better because it features delicious peanut butter. And because it's served in mini portions (no sharing!).

For the recipe and more, click here.

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Buttercream

Can you refrigerate buttercream? Can you use salted instead of unsalted butter to make buttercream? If you're out of confectioners' sugar, can you use granulated?

These are just some of the questions you may have regarding buttercream--find out the answers to these and more buttercream questions, here.